| Making mistakes on a personal blog, if you're not | | | | 5. Aesthetics Nightmare - if you are not an artist or |
| trying to make money or present some professional | | | | graphics person, please don't choose the colors and |
| image - is OK. Making mistakes on your business | | | | style of your business website. At least run it by a |
| website is not OK, and it may be holding you back | | | | few members of your staff - those that will give |
| from doing as well as you would like to. Some | | | | you a straight answer when asked for their opinion. I |
| business owners will just re-use their personal | | | | wonder how in the world some of the color |
| website theme and style for their business website. | | | | combinations I see ever saw the light of day. I |
| Saving time and energy when you create your | | | | imagine they were grandfather's favorite colors or |
| business site are not things you should be considering. | | | | something. The style of your website must be kept |
| Here are 10 big mistakes that many business owners | | | | current and easy on the eyes - and that's always a |
| make with their websites. Stay clear of these! | | | | changing dynamic. |
| 1. Weak Planning - most of you won't sit down and | | | | 6. Dead End Pages - sometimes I'll be surfing a site I |
| plan out your business site in detail. You will likely | | | | like a lot and all the sudden I reach the equivalent of |
| leave it to someone else to create for you and you'll | | | | a dead end street. There are no links to click to |
| approve it if it is generally what you wanted. Take | | | | move forward or backward and I have to go find |
| control and plan the design of your site. The entire | | | | the browser's back button. This is not a good idea |
| format should be your ideas, coupled with what | | | | for your business site. |
| works for other major sites in your niche - or maybe | | | | 7. Killing the Back Button! This doesn't happen much, |
| even outside your niche. It is a safe bet that | | | | but sometimes webmasters break the back button |
| companies like Amazon, and other major companies | | | | using code to disable it. It is a killer mistake as |
| are going with what works. It may work for you too. | | | | nobody wants to be forced to move ahead if it is |
| Plan your columns, width of site, fonts, size of fonts, | | | | time to bail. Stop this practice on your business site |
| space between lines, header image, everything really. | | | | immediately! |
| This business site is to represent your business - and | | | | 8. Pop-Ups - these are beginning to be popular again, |
| must be professional, and attractive in design. Don't | | | | though not in the same style as the past. Currently a |
| skimp! Instead of going with everything you want - | | | | good style of popup is the kind used at Aweber that |
| put it up for discussion at a meeting of your staff. | | | | involves a fading in of the page overtop what the |
| Include everyone - not just the top management. | | | | visitor is looking at - the rest of the page blacks out |
| Everything needs to be analyzed by the group. Your | | | | and all you can see is the popup. If this is done a |
| ideas might NOT be the best. | | | | minute after the visitor arrives and the fade is rather |
| At most your business site can have 3 goals, and | | | | gradual - it doesn't provoke such a negative reaction. |
| should have them in most cases:a. Share info about | | | | Don't use old-pop-styles. |
| you, your business, your products and services.b. Sell | | | | 9. Giant Home Page - your internet connection might |
| something.c. Collect leads for email marketing later. | | | | be a T1, but not all your visitors have that. Create |
| 2. Impossible to Find Contact Info - I can't count the | | | | index pages that are easy to download for 90% of |
| times I've hunted around for an email address or | | | | your visitors and the other 10% know they have a |
| contact form for the owner of a site. Sometimes I | | | | bandwidth issue and will wait if they really want to |
| want to help by telling them I see an | | | | see your site. You cannot optimize your site for |
| error.Sometimes I need more info before I purchase. | | | | everyone, but think top 90% and you'll be on the |
| Sometimes I want to gripe someone out! Make | | | | right track. |
| contact information on every page in an easy to see | | | | Delete all Flash and replace large movies and images |
| location. Keep it in the same place on every page. | | | | with smaller sized media. |
| 3. 404 Errors - broken links to pages and also images | | | | 10. Using Cutting Edge Tech - your website should be |
| should be fixed and never allowed to remain. Fix | | | | able to be viewed and enjoyed by the top 90% of |
| them as soon as you find them. If you have a | | | | visitors. Shoot for that. Using Apple's QuickTime mp4 |
| WordPress site you can use the "Redirection" plugin | | | | videos that require a program download and updating |
| to find errors in your site and redirect visitors to the | | | | to the latest video codecs is NOT hitting 90%. Get |
| proper page. | | | | over yourself and use technology that most of the |
| 4. Outdated Information - It is bad enough that some | | | | world has - unless you have a tech blog or other |
| website owners don't date their articles and so you | | | | business in which users actually dig updates. |
| might be reading something written in the past | | | | Put these tips into practice with every business |
| century. Some date it rather recent, and it's still | | | | website you develop. There are many other things |
| outdated information. Strive to keep all of the | | | | to learn about running a business successfully in these |
| information on your business site current - there is | | | | times - but, these tips will help quite a bit. |
| nothing good about spreading old, bad information. | | | | |